No easy answers for UFC's eye-poking problem

In May UFC President Dana White said the promotion was looking into new gloves to prevent eye pokes. Five months later, a suitable choice has yet to be found.

“We’re working on it,” he said following this past Saturday’s UFC 166 event. “But what are you going to do?”

The pay-per-view event at Houston’s Toyota Center was the latest UFC offering to feature a fight marred by unintentional eye-pokes; middleweight Tim Boetsch was twice fouled by C.B. Dollaway, who was deducted a point upon his second offense and ultimately lost a split call.

Most eye-pokes, however, draw nothing more than a stop of the action and a warning from referees.

When White and the UFC first considered adopting new gloves, another PPV event, UFC 159, had been marred by several unintentional fouls. The event’s co-main event was stopped in the third frame when Alan Belcher was poked in the eye by Michael Bisping, who was not deducted a point and won the fight via decision.

Although the promotion was working on a new glove designed to prevent eye-pokes, White was then hesitant to institute a new piece of equipment given that the UFC’s current glove already had been approved by athletic commissions. He said modifications might not prevent fouls seen with open-finger gloves, which allow fighters to both punch and grapple.

Not much has changed since those first experimentations with hand protection.

“That’s not an easy fix,” White said. “How do you make a glove that you can grapple in and not poke people in the eye in? It makes it tough.”

For now, White believes the solution lies with the fighters. He said he agreed with the point deduction for Dollaway and added, “Keep your f—ing fingers closed. The eye-poke is the most dangerous thing that happen out there. Tim Boetsch already had surgery on his [poked eye], and he pokes him twice. It’s bad. Keep your hands closed.”

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